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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23871979">we found a treehouse (and made it our own)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsSoccer/pseuds/MarsSoccer'>MarsSoccer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Men's Football RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Getting Together, Introspection, Light Angst, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:21:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,269</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23871979</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsSoccer/pseuds/MarsSoccer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dele builds a treehouse. And experiences some milestones. The two are connected (sort of).</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dele Alli/Eric Dier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>we found a treehouse (and made it our own)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hi everyone! this piece of work is a bit all over the place BUT hopefully you guys can make sense of it and enjoy it. hope everyone is safe and healthy during this time x</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's Harry that spots the treehouse first. It's hidden in the depths of the forest with moss growing along one side of it and has chipped wood everywhere. Dele is certain he'll get splinters if he goes anywhere it, so firmly stands his ground and hangs by the large oak tree a few feet away while Harry and his dad give the treehouse a closer inspection. Harry's dad thinks it's got potential and quickly adopts it as his summer project and quickly enlists Dele and Harry to help. Harry thinks it'll be fun. Dele wants to see the dictionary he got his definition of fun from. </p><p>It takes them almost the whole summer to renovate the treehouse. Dele uses his fear of getting splinters to excuse himself from the heavy lifting at the start but by the end of the summer, he's just as involved as Harry. It's odd, seeing a summer's worth of hard work standing in front of him and knowing he was a part of it, but it's a nice kind of odd. As he and Harry rush to the ladder to finally claim the treehouse as their own, Dele faintly wonders what other emotions the treehouse will bring.</p><p>• </p><p>The treehouse is very rarely ever just a treehouse. Some days, it's a castle on the mountain tops and Dele has to figure out a way to sneak past the dragon and rescue the castle's prisoner. On other days, it's a plane dropping bombs that Dele has to nimbly dodge before ripping the controls out of the pilot's hands to save the town below. </p><p>The treehouse gives Dele the ability to escape from normal life and the taunts that he gets from some of the kids at school, so when the chance to escape to the treehouse arises, he grabs it without thinking twice. It helps.</p><p>Harry stops following him to the treehouse in the summer before he starts Year Seven. He says it's because he's not a kid anymore and all that make believe stuff is <em>'just a bit childish now, if you get what I mean?</em>' Harry's words sting in a way that Dele doesn't expect but he nods along and pretends he's okay with it anyway. He tells himself that nothing lasts forever and really, he should be glad Harry played along for as long as he did. The words don't help soothe the pain of betrayal in his heart. </p><p>•</p><p>He stops going the treehouse a few weeks after Harry does.  Playing pretend just doesn't offer the same escape when you have to do it on your own.</p><p>•</p><p>Dele gets his first proper girlfriend when he's 16. Her name is Ruby and Dele could wax lyrical about how beautiful she is. They spend most of their time after school in each other's company either revising or just hanging out. Ruby makes Dele feel special for the first time in a long time and he could get drunk off  the feeling. He's watched so many rom-coms about childhood sweethearts who get to live happily ever after and Dele's never been more certain that he's found the one. Ruby Mae. Dele's childhood sweetheart. It has a nice ring to it.</p><p>•</p><p>Dele takes Ruby to the treehouse on a summer's day after exams are over. He's watched scenes like these in movies countless times - the protagonist takes their love interest to a place from their past, opens up and they spend forever happy and in love. He knows how much Ruby wants him to open and now, he's finally ready to do that. </p><p>Except it doesn't work out that way. Dele hasn't really been to the treehouse since he was a kid so it's in worse shape than he remembers and Ruby throws a fit when she realises that Dele wants her to go inside it. </p><p>"It's a freaking deathtrap, Del!" </p><p>No amount of promising or pleading can get Ruby to change her mind so they turn back the way they came and Dele doesn't his magical moment. His certainty that Ruby could be his childhood sweetheart begins to fade as they walk back to his house. </p><p>• </p><p>Dele meets a certain Eric Dier a couple weeks after him and Ruby break up. They are both unlucky souls that get roped into mentoring the years below and they quickly strike up a friendship over the tragedy that is interacting with Year Sevens.</p><p>Him and Eric spend a lot of time together; both during school and afterwards. They spend so much time together that Sally refers to Eric as his boyfriend at dinner one time and Dele chokes on the spoonful of rice that he chewing. Harry is quick as a flash to ensure that the only thing damaged is Dele's dignity while Sally just fixes him with a bemused smile. Dele does his best to ignore it for the rest of dinner. </p><p>Sally starts to increase the amount of looks she gives him whenever he brings Eric around. Dele gets that's she's only trying to help but having your foster mum wingman you is new level of low that Dele didn't realise he was capable of reaching. He's also terrified that Eric will see one of her many, many looks and figure everything out, so when Harry offhandedly mentions the treehouse in front of Eric, Dele seizes the moment to escape. </p><p>•</p><p>Eric walks around the treehouse a couple times before he resolutely tells Dele he won't be go inside. </p><p>"Look at it, Del. It's an accident waiting to happen." </p><p>Honestly, Eric isn't wrong. It's almost in the exact same condition Harry found it in all those years ago and is crying out for a  renovation. The only problem is that Dele is the only person with the time to do it and he'd sooner die than do all that manual labour by himself. Unless...</p><p>"Help me fix it up then, Dier. Promise I'll make it worth your while."</p><p>Eric gives him a sideways glance before clapping him on the shoulder as he moves past him.</p><p>"I take my payment in cash or food, Delboy."</p><p>•</p><p>Watching Eric lift heavy things around is borderline pornographic and Dele knows he really shouldn't be objectifying his best friend like this but if Eric's getting paid in food, Dele deserves his own payment too.</p><p>He might be a little sad when this is all done. </p><p>•</p><p>It's Eric's idea to have a sleepover in the treehouse when they finally finished the renovations. They've got their sleeping bags, sweets and cans of beer that Eric snuck in.</p><p>They place the two sleeping bags side by side and then get to work, making their ways through the pile of sweets and alcohol while talking about everything and anything. He doesn't know if it's because of the alcohol, the sugar rush or just Eric's sheer presence but a feeling of contentment rushed through Dele's veins and Dele's certain that no drug high could ever come close.  </p><p>Dele thinks he's found his person - for real, this time - and he can't let him slip away. He shuts his eyes tightly and thinks. He thinks about how nice it would be to be able to call Eric Dier his boyfriend and pictures all of Sally's encouraging looks. He thinks about how Eric makes him feel and how he knows he wants to feel like that for the rest of his life. He takes a deep breath and opens his mouth. </p><p>"Do you want to go on a date with me? Like a proper one?"</p><p>The blinding smile Eric gives him when he opens his eyes is answer enough for Dele.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>check out my Tumblr - onlyscorestapins</p></blockquote></div></div>
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